Countdown to College Football Kickoff: Top NFL prospects at Purdue
College football is scheduled to return Saturday, August 29. Each day until then, NFLDraftScout.com will be evaluating the rosters of the best teams in college football, including all 64 within the Power Five conferences.
Purdue Boilermakers
Head Coach: Jeff Brohm (fourth season)
2019 Record: 4-8
2020 NFL Draft Picks: Brycen Hopkins, TE, Los Angeles Rams – 4th Round, No. 136 overall
Markus Bailey, ILB, Cincinnati Bengals – 7th Round, No. 215 overall
Overview:
Jeff Brohm and the Purdue Boilermakers are faced with the difficult task of reversing this team’s negative momentum with the losses growing each of his three seasons at the helm.
Purdue had qualified for bowl games following Brohm’s first two years, winning the Foster Farms Bowl over Arizona to cap the 2017 season at 7-6, before falling to 6-7 in 2018 in part because they lost the Music City Bowl to Auburn.
Even with a revolving door at quarterback, Brohm’s spread offense continued to put up plenty of points last year, averaging a healthy 25.8 points per game with the foursome of Jack Plummer (59.8% completion rate, 11 TDs-8 INTs), Aidan O’Connell (62.8%, 8-4) and Elijah Sindelar (64.3%, 9-3) combining for a 28 to 15 touchdown to interception ratio that most teams in college football would love to have.
That is not too dramatically different from the numbers that David Blough (now with the Detroit Lions) produced (66% and a 25-10 TD to INT ratio) a year ago when Purdue averaged nearly a touchdown more a game. What did change, however, was Purdue’s durability with several impact players on both sides of the ball getting hurt, pushing several raw (but gifted) underclassmen onto the playing field.
While Purdue’s offense averaged 25.8 points per game, their defense surrendered more than 30, slipping – like the team’s overall record – each of the past three years.
Fortunately for Brohm and the Boilermakers, all of that experience gained by young players during last season should result in improved play in 2020. Improved health will help, of course, but Purdue appears to have young stars growing in true sophomores King Dourue (RB), David Bell (WR) and George Karlaftis (DE), each of whom will not yet be eligible for the NFL at the conclusion of this season, unlike their slightly older and more explosive teammate, Rondale Moore.
Featured 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Rondale Moore, WR, 5-09, 180, 4.35, JR
Perhaps no team suffered more critical injuries than the Boilermakers a year ago with arguably its three best players – ILB Markus Bailey, DT Lorenzo Neal and Moore, the first true freshman consensus All-American in Big Ten history - combining to play in a total of six games in 2019.
Moore played in four contests, catching 29 passes for 387 yards and two scores before suffering a severe hamstring injury which simply didn’t heal fast enough to get the speedster back onto the field.
Big Ten defenders were thankful as Moore lit up the conference a year earlier, scoring 14 touchdowns as a receiver (114 receptions for 1,258 yards and 12 TDs) and runner (21 attempts for 213 yards and two scores) with another 744 yards as a returner.
There is no denying that Moore’s production is inflated in head coach Jeff Brohm’s up-tempo offense but the diminutive speedster’s elusiveness and breakaway straight-line speed are just as obvious. Scouts are eager to see what a healthier Moore has in store for 2020, as even with his size deficiencies, he is among the elite playmakers in the country and would likely fetch a Day Two selection in the 2021 NFL draft.
Strengths: Lighting in a bottle as a returner, jet-sweep runner and slot receiver. Electric quickness, showing terrific balance, lateral agility and burst to slither his way through traffic and explode once into the open field.
Possesses the straight-line speed to force cornerbacks onto their heels from the snap, easily creating space for comeback and quick-breaking routes, as well as vertical shots should defenders foolishly meet him flat-footed at the stem…
Small but secure hands for the reception, including showing good concentration and toughness to corral hot passes with defenders lurking nearby. Tracks the ball nicely over either shoulder, showing the ability to adjust midstride. Fearless with the ball in his hands, showing a willingness to head into traffic and keeping his legs churning through contact.
Possesses a sawed-off frame but is not small or weak, with a well-built, surprisingly powerful build which makes it more of a chore for defensive backs to tackle him than it looks…
Say what you will about his frame and durability, Moore plays big, showing aggression, physicality and grit… Moveable chess piece who saw action lined up outside, in the slot and even in the backfield on offense, as well as in the return game, where he has experience fielding both punts and kicks.
Weaknesses: Simply too small for some and didn’t help durability concerns by missing eight games last year due to a soft tissue injury (hamstring)… Too short to play on the outside for most NFL teams and is limited to the number of routes in which his lack of height is not a significant detriment. Taller, longer cornerbacks are too often able to blanket Moore on fades and vertical routes simply because quarterbacks have such a limited space with which to drop the ball. Mostly relegated to simple quick screens, drags across the middle and occasional vertical shots with runs sprinkled in off of jet-sweeps and reverses… Has a reputation as a dangerous returner but the stats don’t back it up with Moore averaging a relatively pedestrian 19.4 yards per kickoff and 6.9 per punt with no scores through his first two seasons (17 games).
NFL Player Comparison: Golden Tate, New York Giants – Despite questions about his size and fit hounding him since he was drafted 60 overall by Seattle back in 2010, Tate has carved out quite the career for himself, using his RB-like frame, 4.42 speed (2010 Combine) and physicality to catch 660 passes for 7,890 yards and 44 touchdowns, as well as contribute as a returner. Moore is not quite as big as Tate and needs a healthy 2020 season to warrant a similar selection, but his playmaking ability is real.
Current NFL Draft Projection: Second-Third Round
The Top 10 NFL Prospects at Purdue:
1. Rondale Moore, WR, 5-09, 180, 4.35, JR
2. Lorenzo Neal, Jr., DT, 6-2, 315, 5.20, rSR
3. Tyler Coyle, S, 6-0, 205, 4.55, rSR - Grad-transfer from Connecticut
4. Dedrick Mackey, CB, 5-11, 185, 4.50, JR
5. Derrick Barnes, OLB, 6-1, 240, 4.80, SR
6. Viktor Beach, C, 6-3, 305, 5.25, JR
7. Grant Hermanns, OT, 6-6, 290, 5.0, SR
8. Jackson Anthrop, WR, 5-10, 185, 4.50, SR
9. Alexander "Zander" Horvath, RB/FB, 6-2, 230, 4.75, JR
10. Simeon Smiley, CB, 6-0, 205, 4.55, rSR
*All 40-yard dash times are estimates
